Naruto: Visual Vengeance
by grey987
Summary: "You left her for dead. So just as you did so to her, I will do the same to you... Naruto."
1. Prologue

**(Opening) AN: This is my first fanfic. If you do not support me recreating the origins of Uzumaki Naruto, please turn back now.**

**I want to note that a character in this story will have an origin story that will be very similar to that of Hatake Kakashi's, so please do not pelt me with negative comments about "how I copied it". Hopefully I won't get any if people are smart enough to read this note, because I am aware that a lot of people don't read things and proceed to state things that go against exactly what a note or instruction has stated earlier.**

******The main story, disregarding the events of the following prologue, takes place after the non-canon ending of NS:UNS3 (Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3).**

**Thanks for reading, and enjoy.**

* * *

**DISCLAIMER: Naruto does not belong to me. Naruto is the property of creator Masashi Kishimoto. No profit is being made off of this work. This is being made purely for the readers' entertainment.**

* * *

**Text Indications:**  
"Speech"  
_"Thought"/"Flashback Dialogue" (ONLY if grouped together with a flashback paragraph.)  
_"_Emphasis_" (Not to be confused with a thought; is written in caps if emphasized in a thought or inner response.)  
[Not Implemented in the Prologue] **"Inner Speaking"** (Can mean either Kurama or Inner Sakura.)  
[Not Implemented in the Prologue] _**"Inner Response" **_(Means Naruto is responding to Kurama/Sakura is responding to Inner Sakura.)  
[Not Implemented in the Prologue] _Flashback_

* * *

**Naruto: Visual Vengeance**

* * *

**PROLOGUE**

* * *

Everyone who's heard of him knows the story of Uzumaki Naruto.

He's the jinchūriki host of the Kyuubi (Nine Tails), who has now been named Kurama, is the son of the (now deceased) Yondaime Hokage and the current hero of Konohagakure (the Village Hidden in the Leaves).

He is a strong-willed shinobi who fights for the good of his village, and more importantly, his friends.

But... what if the story began differently?

What if Naruto had a younger brother whose hatred would grow to burn more than that of an Uchiha's?

* * *

**12 YEARS AFTER THE NINE TAILS ATTACK ON KONOHAGAKURE**

* * *

"Damn it! It's almost as if you saw through my every move!"

A laugh followed up with that statement.

"I _did _see through your every move. You seem to forget that I'm an Uchiha. Not to brag about it or anything..."

Naruto's 11 year old younger brother Uzumaki Kureigu was currently training with his best friend Uchiha Īsan in Īsan's backyard. The two had known each other for several years now and they had become very close, almost like brothers.

Naruto and Īsan's older brother Uchiha Akuseru decided to do the same thing as their younger brothers, except they were training over at Naruto's house.

"I never really did know or understand. What is it that makes the Uchiha so special?" Kureigu asked as his sparring partner helped him up from the ground.

Īsan gestured to his eyes, which glowed a pale shade of red in the sunlight. Two symbols that resembled commas were situated on either the top or bottom of the eyes, with a small black pupil in the center.

"The sharingan," Īsan explained. "They're a special type of eyes that we gain when we experience _anything _emotional. They give us Uchiha a multitude of different abilities that we can use at our disposal, such as being able to see another person's chakra flow, or place an opponent under a mind controlled hallucination. But like I said, we only gain these once we're put through something very emotional. We don't get these the day we're born."

Kureigu pondered this in amazement for a moment. However, he wasn't given too much time to continue wondering about the sharingan as Īsan suddenly remembered there was still more to discuss about the eyes.

"There's that, and, our sharingan actually need to mature when we get them the first time. I mean, mine's not even fully matured. It's only in its second stage out of three."

"What do you mean?" Kureigu asked.

Īsan sighed. "It works something like this."

* * *

Over at Naruto's house in his backyard, Naruto and Akuseru stood on either end of the area, panting hard and waiting for the right moment to strike. They'd been fighting for a while now and their prolonged use of chakra had made them extremely exhausted. The two studied each other carefully, attempting to expose a weakness and use it to their advantage.

Naruto knew that while Akuseru had a chance to move in and deliver the finishing blow, he couldn't do the same seeing that Akuseru's sharingan would detect his attack immediately and give Akuseru a chance to counter it. Naruto decided that he needed a diversion in order to distract Akuseru's eyes from him.

Naruto formed a seal with two of his fingers on either hand, putting them together in the shape of a T, and yelled, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

A puff of smoke erupted around Naruto, and Akuseru squinted to try and see through the smoke. The next thing he saw was 3 clones of Naruto dashing out of the smoke and towards him.

_"Clones... this should be easy to deal with," _Akuseru thought as he shifted his right foot behind him.

As the first clone advanced toward him with a jump, his sharingan detected movement in the clone's left leg and was immediately able to counter a midair kick. Akuseru shifted to the left and grabbed hold of the clone's leg, throwing him against a nearby fence closing off the backyard from the streets outside. Upon impact, the clone disappeared with a "poof".

Akuseru then focused his attention on the remaining two clones, who were closing in fast on either side. The clone on Akuseru's right side seemed to be faster and reached him first, the clone raising his fist to land a punch. Using his sharingan, Akuseru foresaw the attack and grabbed hold of the clone's arm, twisting it behind him and landing a harsh kick to his back. The other remaining clone vaulted over the one who was just hit by Akuseru and yelled with a seething determination to beat into him.

The clone threw several punches at Akuseru, all of which were either blocked or dodged. When the clone threw another punch, Akuseru grabbed hold of his fist and pushed it back, bending the clone's arm in the process. It only took a little more pressure before the clone disappeared with a cloud of smoke, and with that, Akuseru had taken care of all the clones Naruto had summoned a moment earlier.

_"Now," _he thought, beginning to look around, _"where could the real Naruto be?"_

Suddenly, Akuseru felt something hard collide into his back, and he arched his back up in pain. Before he could turn around, a kunai was lightly pressed against the right side of his neck, rendering him unable to move without being cut.

"It's over, Akuseru," a voice from behind him said. "I win."

Akuseru glanced behind him to see Naruto smirking.

"Damn you..." Akuseru said with a smile as Naruto's kunai was withdrawn from his neck. "You were able to bypass my sharingan, then?"

"Yeah, using the clones as a distraction," Naruto replied. "However, it wasn't easy staying behind you all the time. It took up quite a bit of chakra at times."

Naruto followed up with a chuckle, impressed at his victory over an Uchiha.

* * *

Because Kureigu was so intrigued by the visual prowess of the sharingan, he and Īsan stopped battling and headed inside the house so Īsan could further explain the powers of the sharingan. He'd been doing so for a while now in his bedroom, and while Kureigu was still ready to listen, Īsan was getting increasingly weary of explaining the special pair of eyes. Not even he was fully understanding of them.

At one point, after much hesitation, Kureigu decided to come out with a question _Īsan's _sharingan.

"Um, Īsan..." Kureigu began, becoming increasingly hesitant.

"Yes... what is it?" Īsan mumbled, considering giving up on explaining the sharingan any further.

"... You know... um... about _your _sharingan..."

Īsan furrowed his brow in confusion as he waited for his friend to continue the sentence.

"Go on..." Īsan urged when he realized Kureigu was hesitating.

"How did you... you know... get them...?"

Īsan looked at Kureigu long and hard for a moment, realizing he had trouble asking the question. He knew that Kureigu knew that the question might be a painful reminder of the event for his friend, as he must have needed to go through a very emotionally shattering one in order to obtain his sharingan.

Īsan nodded at his friend and decided to tell him.

"I was out on a C-rank mission that didn't involve the rest of the team."

"So that would mean me and Jēn," Kureigu interrupted briefly.

"Yeah. Rather than our team, my older brother Akuseru was assigned to come with me on the mission."

"I remember him. He's in my older brother's class."

Despite that being Kureigu's second interruption, Īsan already became frustrated trying to explain.

"If you'll let me finish... We were escorting someone somewhere when we were attacked by some assassins. I was held hostage, my brother was defeated by them... and they threatened his life in front of me. I begged them not to hurt him... but they did. They beat him so badly... to the point where I lost all sense. So I found myself awakening my sharingan, and killing the assassin who held me hostage. I managed to beat the others badly, but I couldn't beat them because I was still a genin. I wasn't as skilled then. Because of my work, though... my brother was freed, and he was able to take down the other assassins."

Kureigu was quite shocked. He never imagined an Uchiha would have to be in a situation that serious in order to awaken the sharingan. He also never imagined that Īsan was so angered to the point where he killed someone. He had never seen his friend act that way, and he hoped that he'd never have to.

However, fate decided to be cruel one day, and he did.

* * *

**(Closing) AN: ****I will continue to edit this along with future chapters should I spot any errors that I hadn't spotted before during my proofreads. I will not keep a log of them, though, as I will be editing this and future chapters as frequently as possible.**

**The next few chapters that follow will see the development of a NaruSaku pairing in the present day. In other words, four years after the events of the prologue you just read.**

**Now, I realize that Itachi Uchiha killed every member of his clan (except for Sasuke) before defecting from the Leaf Village. Let's just say that Īsan and his older brother Akuseru were able to escape from death at Itachi's hands by unknown means. (Yeah, I'm kind of lazy like that)**

**Involving the chapters, I don't have a lot of time on my hands. I will come out with more chapters, but they will not come as quickly as you might expect them to, and I apologize for that. Anyway, I hope you like the concept.**


	2. Chapter 1

**(Opening) AN: Hey guys. Here's the first official chapter of Visual Vengeance. Sorry I came out very late with this.**

**If you do not support the NaruSaku pairing of Naruto, please turn back now.**

* * *

**DISCLAIMER: Naruto does not belong to me. Naruto is the property of creator Masashi Kishimoto. No profit is being made off of this work. This is being made purely for the readers' entertainment.**

* * *

**Text Indications:  
**"Speech"  
_"Thought"/"Flashback Dialogue" (ONLY if grouped together with a flashback paragraph.)  
_"_Emphasis_" (Not to be confused with a thought; is written in caps if emphasized in a thought or inner responses.)  
**"Inner Speaking" **(Can mean either Kurama or Inner Sakura.)  
_**"Inner Response"** _(Means Naruto is responding to Kurama/Sakura is responding to Inner Sakura.)  
_Flashback_

* * *

**Naruto: Visual Vengeance**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

* * *

**FOUR YEARS LATER**

* * *

The sight was surreal for her... it was also horrific. Standing right in front of the pink haired girl was a monster, the more hateful side of a boy that she valued in her life. The monster was surrounded in a dark red cloak of chakra that took on a humanoid form, with four tails formed from this chakra protruding out from behind him. Eyes that were once cerulean now stared at the girl's jade eyes, entirely white with no pupils. The monster was bent on all fours, snarling in a low tone; his teeth bared and appearing ready to strike at any given moment.

The girl stared at the monster in fear and sadness. Her eyes welled up with tears at the thought of the boy suffering inside of his dark prison of consequence.

"This... isn't the Naruto... that I know..." she whispered quietly, her voice shaky with every word.

The monster reared up and tipped its head back, letting out an animalistic roar that lasted for a long moment.

"THIS ISN'T THE NARUTO I KNOW!" the girl screamed, although with no true purpose.

However, the screaming did her no good, and before she knew it, something else was happening.

The monster was running straight toward her.

As it got close to the girl, the monster skidded to a halt and raised an arm, preparing to slash her across the face. She could only stare in shock, and wait for the painful impact.

* * *

When the claws made contact with her face, the girl woke up with a fright, panting heavily and checking her surroundings.

"Only a nightmare..." she thought to herself, as she checked the time and saw that it was 8:03 in the morning. She slipped out of bed and began to get dressed.

This girl was Haruno Sakura, a chūnin level kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf Village, and good friend of Uzumaki Naruto.

Sakura, after getting dressed, was now wearing a red sleeveless top with a light yellow short-sleeved shirt under it, a navy colored skirt, and black boots that started just below her knees.

After eating breakfast, she headed outside and took a stroll through the busy streets of Konoha. She found it pleasing that the village appeared to be in a calm state, considering the catastrophic events that ensued during the Fourth Great Shinobi World War. Sakura then thought about Naruto. The village's hero. He had managed to end the Fourth Shinobi World War with the takedown of the fake Madara, aka Tobi, the villain pulling the strings in the war. He was forever saving everyone, most notably Sakura.

This suddenly caused Sakura to stop midway through her stroll and think about something else, while still pertaining to Naruto. She realized that whenever she was with Naruto, she had very strange feelings circling around inside of her like butterflies. As she thought about this for a moment, she struggled to try and find out if she ever truly knew what these feelings were.

_"Have I truly been so oblivious to myself all this time?" _she thought as she began to walk again. _"But... how can I not understand my own feelings?"_

**"Perhaps it's because you haven't opened yourself up to them because of that bastard Sasuke," **a voice said inside of Sakura's head. This voice belonged to her inner self.

_**"What?"** _Sakura responded fiercely. _**"What does Sasuke-kun have anything to do with this?"**_

**"You know Sakura, sometimes I really wonder how stupid you can be. Sasuke has never seen you as _that_, not to mention that he never will, didn't listen to you when you tried to convince him to stay in the Leaf Village, has knocked you out cold and has attempted to kill you not once, but THREE times! Yet you still treasure him and fail to see the truth of it all."**

_**"What truth?" **_Sakura demanded, interested in what her inner self had to say.

**"Do you remember what Sai told you? About Naruto?"**

Sakura thought back to that day. Indeed she remembered.

* * *

_"I don't know about the promise you made to Naruto," Sai had said. "But... even I can tell that Naruto loves you!"_

* * *

**_"Yeah... I do..." _**Sakura responded sheepishly to her inner self.

**"Then why don't you understand? He's right in front of you for Kami's sake, Sakura."**

_**"I... don't know... I guess I just..."**_

**"You need to dig _deep, _Sakura. You can only know how you feel about him if you pay attention to your feelings rather than leave them sitting idly by."**

With that, Inner Sakura left the real Sakura to think about what her inner self had just said.

_"Do I... really feel that way about him...?" _she thought, suddenly feeling sad when she thought about the pain Naruto must have been suffering when she falsely confessed her "love" to him.

* * *

While Sakura was thinking about what her inner self had told her, Naruto was sitting on his bed in his pajamas, reminiscing about something that continued to haunt him. Naruto was holding a picture with him, his mother Uzumaki Kushina, his father Namikaze Minato, and his younger brother Uzumaki Kureigu in it. The picture was taken outside of the Academy as a memory of when Naruto graduated it at 12 years old.

He shuddered every time he looked at Kureigu. The face he made at Naruto in the photo would normally have made him laugh whenever he looked at it, but he wasn't laughing this time. He continued to remember his past with his brother. That part of his past was always something that Naruto could never shake off, no matter how hard he tried.

* * *

_"Akarui-sensei!" __an eleven year old Kureigu shouted. His sensei, Akarui, managed to turn his head to look at the trees just in time to avoid a row of three kunai daggers that were thrown at him. The tips of each of the daggers pierced through the dirt as they made contact, all spread apart from each other. It was fortunate that Akarui didn't divert his attention from the three daggers, as he spotted an explosive tag attached to each one._

_"Everyone, scatter!" Akarui yelled as he leapt away from the daggers. It took a moment for the situation to set in amongst everyone else, and they scattered just when the tags were detonated. The resulting force of the explosion scattered the majority of both teams and knocked Naruto into the branch of the tree. Kureigu, however, suffered major damage due to his close proximity to the tags._

_"Kureigu!" Īsan shouted, jumping back into the scene to check up on his wounded friend._

_"Hey man, are you okay?" he asked desperately._

_Kureigu grunted, trying to move his limbs. Pain numbed him from head to toe._

_"Can't... move..." he groaned, trying hard to stay awake._

_"Just hang in there, Kureigu."_

_Īsan turned away from his friend to see what was happening behind him. His team, along with Naruto's, was engaging in combat with an assassin._

_Naruto, seething with rage from witnessing the injuries his brother suffered, directly engaged the assassin, lunging at his opponent with a punch only to see him sidestep his ruthless attack._

_"Damn it!" Naruto cursed as he twisted on his right foot and landed a backwards roundhouse kick into his opponent. The assassin was hit, but he managed to recover from the attack quickly, flipping backward from the force of the impact and then landing on his feet. Naruto charged once again, throwing punch after punch all of which were either dodged or blocked. As Naruto closed in for another blow, the assassin twisted on one foot and landed a kick to the side of Naruto's face, launching him off of the tree._

_"Naruto!" Sakura yelled as she witnessed the event, Naruto quickly approaching the ground. Uchiha Sasuke, a member of Naruto and Sakura's team, acted fast and made his way off of the tree branch he was standing on and reached the ground as soon as he could. Once he was sure he was behind Naruto, he leapt at him with all the force he could muster. In a matter of two seconds, Sasuke collided into Naruto's back, and now both of them were quickly approaching the ground. Sasuke's arms were locked under Naruto's shoulders, and he flipped back once and made sure to land on the ground with his feet. Sasuke skidded across the hard dirt on his sandals before landing on his bottom._

_After making sure that Sasuke and Naruto had landed safely, Hatake Kakashi leapt up to the tree branch that the assassin was standing on to take his turn to engage him in combat._

* * *

Naruto's thoughts were interrupted when he heard a knock on his door, and he put the photo away to go and answer it. When he opened his door, he found Sakura standing in the doorway.

"Oh, hi Sakura-chan," he said, his voice hollow and lacking the cheerfulness that it usually carried. It wasn't hard for Sakura to notice that, and she immediately confronted him about it.

"Hi, Naruto. Is something wrong? You don't sound too good."

Naruto shook his head in denial.

"No, just thinking about stuff. Please, come in."

Sakura obliged, first taking her boots off of her feet at the doorstep then stepping inside of Naruto's apartment, following close behind him. He took a seat behind a table in the kitchen, and Sakura took a seat opposite him.

"So, what's brought you here today, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, his voice slowly returning to its cheerful tone.

Sakura hesitated for a moment. She wasn't entirely sure of what to say to Naruto.

"I guess I just wanted to talk," she said quietly, her palms laid flat against the table and her right foot repeatedly tapping the wooden floor.

"What about?" Naruto asked.

Sakura tried hard to suppress a frustrated sigh.

_"This is trickier than I thought it would be..." _she thought as she decided to tackle her thoughts head-on.

"Okay, you got me. I don't actually want to talk about anything. I just wanted to ask you one question."

Naruto's eyebrow arced up in confusion.

"Do you... uh..."

Sakura scratched the back of her head nervously.

"Go on," Naruto urged, becoming impatient and wanting to know just what it was that Sakura was getting at.

"Do you wanna... go out on a date with me?"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock. This was a _total _role reversal.

_"And here I thought I was supposed to be asking her out on a date all the time," _he thought with a grin.

"Sure! I've been waiting for an opportunity like this for a while now," Naruto answered eagerly.

Sakura smiled at her team-mate and blushed lightly after hearing his answer.

"So at what time do you want to pick me up?" she asked, standing up from her seat.

"Hm... how does 7:00 sound to you?" Naruto asked her as he too stood up from his seat.

"Sure, that'll work," she said, smiling again. "See you then."

Sakura turned and headed towards the doorway, strapping her boots back on and closing the door behind her.

When Sakura left, Naruto jumped on top of the table and started celebrating. For one, he was finally able to go out on a date with the girl he loved since he was 12, and secondly, it was _Sakura _asking _him _out on a date. Naruto couldn't be more happier.

* * *

**SEVERAL HOURS LATER**

* * *

Naruto stood in front of a mirror. He was wearing a black and orange jacket, orange pants, and black sandals. He ran a hand through his spiky hair, smiling to himself.

_"Gotta look good in front of Sakura-chan," _he thought to himself as he removed his hand from his hair.

**"You know, sometimes I wonder why you won't give this girl up," **a voice said inside of Naruto's head. This voice belonged to Kurama, aka the Nine Tails.

_**"Why would I? I'm in love with her, you stupid fox,"** _Naruto responded bitterly.

**"Yes, but then there's the fact that she's abused you a lot, ignored your feelings, and still loves that boy that you both call your team-mate."**

_**"He IS our team-mate."**_

**"Then why is it that he's tried to kill you both on numerous occasions and still hasn't come back to the village?"**

Naruto remained speechless for a moment. It was true, and it took Naruto a moment to regain his composure.

_**"While what you say about Sasuke is true... I'm still going to bring him back to the village no matter what. For mine, as well as Sakura's sake."**_

Kurama sighed.

**"Baka," **he muttered to himself. **"Total baka."**

With that, Kurama left Naruto alone and thinking about Sakura again. When he checked the time on his clock, it said 6:54 p.m.

_"Well, time to go," _he thought happily to himself as he exited his apartment through a window. He then jumped onto the roof of another building, sprinting across any incoming roofs on his way to Sakura's house. Unbeknownst to him, however, a hooded figure stood crouched on the roof of another building, watching Naruto from a distance. As Naruto began to get farther away from him, he stood up...

And began to give chase.

* * *

**(Closing) AN: Well, there's the first official chapter of Visual Vengeance. Definitely not one of my better writing pieces.**


	3. Chapter 2

**(Opening) AN: Once again, I apologize for being (extremely) late with this chapter.**

* * *

******DISCLAIMER: Naruto does not belong to me. Naruto is the property of creator Masashi Kishimoto. No profit is being made off of this work. This is being made purely for the readers' entertainment.**

* * *

**Text Indications:  
**"Speech"  
_"Thought"/"Flashback Dialogue" (ONLY if grouped together with a flashback paragraph.)  
_"_Emphasis_" (Not to be confused with a thought; is written in caps if emphasized in a thought or inner responses.)  
**"Inner Speaking" **(Can mean either Kurama or Inner Sakura.)  
_**"Inner Response"** _(Means Naruto is responding to Kurama/Sakura is responding to Inner Sakura.)  
_Flashback_

* * *

**Naruto: Visual Vengeance**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

* * *

_He had been stabbed. One wrong move had gotten landed him up in a bad place. Just ONE wrong move._

_Uzumaki Kureigu watched the scene in horror as it took a moment for reality to set in and wrap itself around his thoughts._ _His friend, Uchiha Īsan, had been stabbed with a tantō. The blade of the tantō pierced through his back, the end of the blade covered in blood. The assassin that was wielding the tantō placed a foot against Īsan's stomach and kicked him off of the blade. Īsan's limp body fell backwards off of the tree._

_"Īsan!" Kureigu shouted, diving in to catch him._

_Naruto stared at the two in dismay and shock. Kureigu and Īsan, as Naruto had known for a long time, were the best of friends. Now, they had been torn apart by an enemy that they had not expected._

_"Īsan! Īsan, are you okay!?" Kureigu asked desparately, shaking the limp body of his friend._

_Blood poured out of the corners of his mouth as Īsan mumbled a somewhat coherent sentence, "Well... I'm alive... so that's good..."_

_Kureigu shouted so that everyone could hear, "He's alive! I need a medical-nin here, now!"_

_Jēn, a genin and medical-nin of Team Akarui, rushed to her two team-mates immediately, hoping to be able to keep her friend alive. She bent down and examined the stab wound on Īsan's chest. As a test, she placed her hands over it and worked some healing chakra in and around it. She stopped five seconds after, her head drooping down in bitter disappointment. Tears began to well in her eyes, for she already knew the fate of her friend._

_"__Jēn_?" Kureigu whispered softly. _Jēn_ only bit her lip, not offering one word of response.

_"__Jēn_...? What's his status...?"

_Still no response._

_"__Jēn_... I need you to tell me. is he alright?"

___Jēn_ finally let lose with the tears, sobbing almost violently and answering, "There's no way to save him. He's going to die in a matter of minutes."

_Kureigu widened his eyes in shock. He knew that these would be his last moments with his friend. His BEST friend. He himself began to cry silently, the tears slowly slipping down his cheeks._

_"Why...?" he asked, this time talking to Īsan, who's eyes were slightly fluttering and close to lifeless. "Why...? You damn baka... you should have kept your cool and not have worried about me... Baka... you damn baka!"_

_Īsan smiled. "Friends don't just forget each other. Especially best friends."_

_Kureigu couldn't even produce any words. He cried silently into his friend's shoulder, with __Jēn_ looking at the two and smiling softly while still crying.

_Meanwhile, up in the trees, Team Kakashi and Akarui-sensei were fighting their enemy, who was moving swiftly through the branches away from them. Naruto was taking the lead, giving vicious chase to the assassin. His eyes were red on the outside and his pupils took on a tiger-like appearance. The assassin took note of this and made sure to keep a close eye on him. However, as if his mind had been read, Naruto suddenly disappeared in a blur. The assassin looked ahead in confusion, wondering where the boy had gone. Suddenly, he had been knocked forward by a foot to his back. Naruto had teleported behind the assassin while he was so focused in front of him. Hatake Kakashi jumped up and delivered an axe-kick to the quickly approaching assassin, making him descend to the ground at a high speed. Naruto wasn't satisfied, however, and continued to give chase, jumping off of the tree branch he was standing on and dive-bombing toward the ground._

_"Naruto, no!" Kakashi called out. Naruto didn't hear him because he was already mid-way through the drop. He gritted his teeth as the wind sliced at his face, getting closer to the ground every millisecond._

_"Naruto...?" a voice called out again. This voice differed from Kakashi's, though. It sounded... feminine._

_"Naruto..." the voice called out again._

* * *

"Naruto!"

Naruto soon recognized this voice as Haruno Sakura's, and woke up from his daydream. He shook his head vigorously for a moment, then looked into Sakura's jade eyes.

"What?" he asked sleepily.

"I asked you out on a date, I didn't ask you to come to Ichiraku's so that I could watch you stare at a wall like you're having a competition with it," she growled angrily in response.

"Oh... sorry."

Sakura softened up when she realized that Naruto was in a very solemn type of mood.

"Sorry... it's just that..."

"I know," Naruto cut in, his voice sounding slightly frustrated. "It's okay."

"... Naruto... what's wrong? I noticed that you acted the same way back at your house when I came in."

"It's nothing," Naruto said, this time sounding visibly frustrated. "I was just reminiscing, that's all."

Sakura slammed her hand on the table. Now it was _her _turn to be frustrated.

"Naruto, if we're going to cooperate, then we need to tell each other what's happening. So tell me what's on your mind, or I'm leaving."

Naruto thought about this for a moment, then sighed.

"I was reminiscing about some events that happened about four years ago. Events involving..."

Naruto stopped. The word was stuck in his throat. A word- a name, more specifically- that he couldn't say easily anymore.

"Involving...?" Sakura prodded, attempting to take the calmest approach she could.

Naruto swallowed, then finished the sentence, "Events involving Kureigu."

It took Sakura a moment to try and understand who he was talking about, but then she remembered the mission. The memory was vague, but she remembered being introduced to Naruto's younger brother during the mission before the attack that started the chain of events that continued to haunt Naruto.

* * *

_Both teams, Team Kakashi and Team Akarui, walked together in a group outside of the gates of the Hidden Leaf as they set out for their mission. Kakashi and Akarui were talking incoherently off in one corner, with Kureigu and __Īsan_ doing the same in another. Sakura was talking with ___Jēn_, but then decided to ask Naruto about his brother.

_"Hey Naruto," she said, "who's the guy who's dressed like you? Just wanted to ask, since you two seem so close..."_

_"Oh, him? He's my annoying little brother," Naruto answered, hands locked behind his head as he walked._

_"Really? I didn't know you had a little brother." Sakura expressed genuine surprise when she said that sentence._

_"Well, now you know. He's a real piece of work that I have to deal with."_

_"Right..."_

_Sakura eventually went back to talking with ____Jēn_, and Naruto was left alone to walk in silence.

* * *

"He's your younger brother, right?" Sakura asked.

"_Was _my younger brother," Naruto corrected immediately after Sakura finished her sentence.

She was confused by the correction. While she knew it was risky to ask what it meant, she decided to do so anyway.

"What do you mean by _was_...?" she asked in a quiet voice.

Naruto's expression turned into a bitter one for a split second before it returned to its blank state.

"He died."

Sakura decided to stop there. Asking any further questions about Kureigu was bound to ignite Naruto's anger.

"I'm... sorry for your loss," Sakura said, carefully placing a hand over Naruto's shoulder. He simply sighed and turned around in his seat, facing the shop's front wall. He once again stared blankly ahead of himself.

"It happened four years back. We got into a fight one night," he said, beginning to explain himself without Sakura needing to ask. "He beat the crap out of me because I didn't want to hurt him. He would have killed me if not for my dad. He saved me. At the cost of his own life."

Naruto took a deep breath before continuing.

"Seeing him die right in front of me enraged me. The fight between me and my brother continued... and I ended up unintentionally killing him."

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise.

_"So... Naruto's first kill was... his own brother?" _she thought in horror.

"When I snapped out of the trance that the Kyuubi was holding me in... I was crushed. No squabble or disagreement that we had would make me wish he were dead. He was family," he said, biting his lip afterward to keep from crying.

"But I lost control. I didn't know what was right anymore. I just wanted what-"

Naruto abruptly stopped speaking. He directed his focus towards a hooded figure outside, who was standing amongst the crowd of people walking back and forth across the street. The figure was staring at him. Watching. Its body didn't display even the slightest bit of movement. The only part of the figure that _was _moving was its cloak, which swayed back and forth in the gentle wind outside. Naruto was paying attention, in particular, to the place where the figure's eyes were. One was missing, perhaps closed, and the other had an appearance that Naruto instantly recognized.

The eye belonged to Kurama.


End file.
